Euronext to cut costs with early retirements
The company said last week that it would cut staff in an attempt to reduce costs after the merger of the exchanges in Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels. But it has pledged not to make any compulsory redundancies.
After recent attempts by companies such as Moulinex, the consumer goods maker, Danone, the food processor, and Marks & Spencer, the clothing retailer, to make wholesale redundancies in France while they were still profitable, pressure has grown on Euronext not to make redundancies.
It is understood that trade unions at Euronext approached management to propose that a retirement scheme for older staff - some of whom are struggling to adapt to the new environment, in which English is the official language - could be accelerated.
Euronext revealed in its 2001 accounts that it had made a €26.5m ($23m) provision for the early retirement - up until 2009 - of 76 staff from the Paris office.
The process will take two years to complete and all those who will reach the age of 55 within the next six years will be eligible.
At the time of Euronext's IPO, analysts said it was as much as 20% overstaffed and that the lack of redundancies was preventing the company from reaping the full benefits of the merger. Last week, it announced flat revenues and profits for 2001 and warned that 2002 would be the same.
Staff at Liffe, which Euronext acquired in November 2001, GL Trade, Euronext's software trading subsidiary, and BVLP, the Portuguese stock exchange that joined Euronext in January 2002, will not be affected.
